Words to Write By

This week’s quote comes from Truman Capote.

“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”

― Truman Capote

You ever seen someone smother their french fries in ketchup to the point where you can’t even see the fries? Or maybe someone dumps so much cream in their coffee you say something stupid like, “Hey, you want some coffee with that cream?” Anyway, that’s how I’ve been feeling about my writing lately. I swear I’m not posting this to elicit sympathy. Nope, it all about the importance and hard truth in Truman Capote’s quote. Essentially, if you are going to pursue writing, you are going to fail or at least feel like your failing a lot, and I think Mr. Capote’s right. Every time I’ve had some success at this gig it’s been more meaningful because I know how hard I’ve worked for it, and how much harder I’ll work still.

So, even when you’re feeling like you’re failing miserably, and the rejections are piling up, and the revision just keeps going and going and going, remember how fucking great those fries taste with a little ketchup.

The Novel

Still working on the novel, still revising, but getting closer. Progress on the novel for the last couple of week was slowed by a vacation and then a story I needed to write for another project. I’m back on on it this week and what I hope is the final two weeks before a completed revision and the novel is back in my agents hands. (My lips to gods ears and all that.)

Short Stories

Uh, not great.

Submissions Sent: 0

Rejections: 1

Acceptances: 1

Publications: 1

Shortlist: 0

I have fallen of the wagon with submission in a serious way. The one bright spot here is an acceptance and a publication. There’s a submission window closing today for a market I do not want to miss, so I can guarantee at least one submission this week. Of course, I’m also off my pace for 100 submissions for the year, but I still have time to make that up.

The Blog

In this post I discuss what I do after an acceptance (a much less-used set of procedures).

Goals

The main goal is to get a story or two out to a market a very much like whose submission window close TODAY. Beyond that, it’s working on the novel (like a broken record).

Curious Fictions

I’ve published a couple more flash pieces over at Curious Fictions. They’re free to read, so head on out, give ’em a look, and throw me a like or two if you’re so inclined.

The first story is called “A Man of Many Hats,” and it’s one of the weirder things I’ve written. It was originally published by The Molotov Cocktail. The second story is an old, unpublished work called “A Friend for Abby.” .

2 thoughts on “A Week of Writing: 7/22/19 to 7/28/19”

I think we all know that feeling, Aeryn. And I’ve found that if you are novel writing the short story subs drop right off. Parts of the ups and downs of being a writer. I’ve managed to get one story off this week, a manuscript submitted for critique under the RNA new writer scheme, a flash comp entry simply because my group of writing buddies all decided to enter – it kind of spurs you on – and 3 chapters of a not polished novel rapidly sent into a free to enter work in progress competition I spotted on Twitter. So, I guess that’s not bad. Whether any sales will come out of it is another matter. Keep on going.

I can usually keep the subs going when I’m working on a novel, but this one has just been all-consuming. I think I miss the subs because they’re that little shot of validation and that feeling that I’ve finished something. Whereas the novel is more slog and grind without much reward (though, of course, the potential rewards are much greater).